a·gen·tic a·gil·i·ty

a·gen·tic a·gil·i·ty: blog

Helping companies navigate the realities of business agility and not just be technically agile! Regular content on Scrum, Agility, & DevOps!

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Scrum

Defines the Definition of Done in Scrum as a clear, shared standard for quality, ensuring increments are releasable, transparent, and continuously …

Blog Blog
Read more about The Definition of Done is a Commitment to Quality
Lean

Explores how effective capacity planning shifts focus from individual hours to system-level flow, using Lean and Agile principles to improve …

Blog Blog
Read more about Rethinking Capacity Planning
Engineering Excellence

Explains how short-lived topic branches in source control improve software quality, enable modularity, speed up integration, and support agile, …

Blog Blog
Read more about Why Topic Branches Drive High-Quality Delivery
Engineering Excellence

Explains how fragmented automation and tool silos harm software delivery, and advocates for unified engineering systems and platform engineering to …

Blog Blog
Read more about Stop Building Silos. Start Building Systems
Leadership

Explores the distinct roles of human and AI agency in adaptive systems, emphasising human-led strategy and accountability versus AI-driven tactical …

Blog Blog
Read more about Human and AI Agency in Adaptive Systems: Strategy Before Optimisation
Engineering Excellence

Explains why business logic should not be written in stored procedures, highlighting testability, maintainability, scalability, and strategies for …

Blog Blog
Read more about Stop Writing Business Logic in Stored Procedures
DevOps

Explores how lacking developer control over production, telemetry, and deployments undermines DevOps, leading to fragile automation and failed …

Blog Blog
Read more about How Lack of Agency is Killing Your DevOps Initiatives
Engineering Excellence

Resilience must be designed into products from the start, not added later. Build systems to detect, contain, and recover from failures, making …

Blog Blog
Read more about Resilience is Part of the Product, Not an Afterthought
Product Development

Most agile transformations fail by neglecting agency—empowering people and systems to adapt—making true agility possible through autonomy, evidence, …

Blog Blog
Read more about The Missing Lever in Agile Transformations
DevOps

Learn key strategies for building business resilience and continuity, including observability, system decoupling, routine deployments, team …

Blog Blog
Read more about How to Build for Business Resilience and Continuity
Philosophy

Explores how robots and AI automate repetitive work, challenging outdated job structures and enabling humans to focus on creativity, problem-solving, …

Blog Blog
Read more about Robots and AI Are Not Taking Our Jobs They Are Giving Us Our Dignity Back
Engineering Excellence

Explores how poor engineering, shallow product thinking, and organisational denial lead to fragile systems, stressing that true resilience requires …

Blog Blog
Read more about Fragile by Design: The Cost of Pretending to Be Resilient
Scrum

Explains why true Scrum requires real team agency, not just self-management in name, and how lacking agency leads to ineffective, ritualistic Agile …

Blog Blog
Read more about The Role of Agency in Scrum: Why Self-Management Without Agency is a Lie
Product Development

Explains how the Definition of Done evolves in Scrum, aligning team practices with organisational standards to ensure consistent quality, compliance, …

Blog Blog
Read more about Your Evolving Definition of Done
Scrum

Scrum Masters are most effective when they combine leadership skills with technical, business, and organisational mastery to support teams, Product …

Blog Blog
Read more about Great Scrum Masters Need Technical, Business, and Organisational Mastery
Leadership

Explores how Scrum Masters and Product Owners balance leadership, authority, and team autonomy to ensure accountability, effective self-management, …

Blog Blog
Read more about Balance of Leadership and Control in Scrum
Product Development

Measuring individual cycle time in Kanban misleads teams, hides real bottlenecks, and harms flow. Focus on system-wide metrics like PCE, WIP, and …

Blog Blog
Read more about Why Measuring Individual Cycle Time is Killing Your Flow (And What to Do Instead)
DevOps

Continuous delivery is achievable for any software, regardless of complexity. Success depends on investment in automation, quality, and process …

Blog Blog
Read more about Stop Hiding Behind Complexity and Start Delivering Continuously
Leadership

Argues that the Scrum Master role requires proven mastery and real-world experience, not entry-level skills or certifications, and should be earned …

Blog Blog
Read more about There Is No Such Thing as a "Junior" Scrum Master
Engineering Excellence

Explains how audience-based deployment and testing in production enable faster feedback, safer rollouts, and higher software quality by targeting real …

Blog Blog
Read more about Testing in Production Maximises Quality and Value
Product Development

Value in software is only realised through delivery. Frequent releases validate assumptions, reduce risk, and enable rapid feedback, adaptation, and …

Blog Blog
Read more about Without Delivery, There Is No Value
Engineering Excellence

Explains why promoting code through multiple branches slows delivery, increases risk, and suggests GitHub Flow or Release Flow as simpler, safer …

Blog Blog
Read more about Stop Promoting Branches
Product Development

Scrum teams must deliver working software to real users every Sprint; true progress is measured by delivery to production, not just by completing …

Blog Blog
Read more about Delivery is the only Measure of Progress in Scrum
Scrum

Explains how the Scrum Master is accountable for enabling effective product delivery, fostering team success, and ensuring each sprint produces a …

Blog Blog
Read more about The Scrum Master is accountable for Delivery
Product Development

Excessive handoffs in software development create delays, reduce quality, and harm team morale. Learn how eliminating handoffs boosts agility, flow, …

Blog Blog
Read more about Why Handoffs Are Killing Your Agility
Product Development

Explains the difference between subjective goals and the objective Definition of Done in Scrum, highlighting how clear, measurable criteria ensure …

Blog Blog
Read more about Definition of Done - Objective vs Subjective
Scrum

Many Scrum Masters lack core Scrum knowledge and technical skills, leading to poor team support. Learn key competencies needed for effective, …

Blog Blog
Read more about Why Most Scrum Masters Are Failing and What They Should Know
Product Development

Explores why teams ignore clear signals from Agile and Scrum, highlighting how culture and fear hinder continuous improvement and effective …

Blog Blog
Read more about You can't stop the signal! But you can ignore it!
Scrum

Explores how practical use of Scrum fosters adaptability and resilience in teams, highlighting the value of flexibility over rigid rules in complex …

Blog Blog
Read more about Pragmatism crushes Dogma in the wild
Kanban

Using Blocked columns on Kanban boards hides workflow issues, causes task stagnation, and reduces transparency. Use tags to indicate blockages and …

Blog Blog
Read more about Blocked Columns on Kanban Boards Obfuscate Workflow and Undermine Effectiveness
Continuous Learning

Explores the shift from traditional to immersive Agile learning, highlighting how ongoing, real-world practice and reflection improve knowledge …

Blog Blog
Read more about The Evolution of Agile Learning: Insights from Scrum.org's Webinar
Ethos

Explores how the seven deadly sins from Greek philosophy mirror common pitfalls in agile software development, offering insights to avoid pride, envy, …

Blog Blog
Read more about The 7 Deadly Sins of Agile: A Grecian Odyssey through Modern Software Development
Scrum

Learn how to define, craft, and achieve effective Sprint Goals in Scrum, using frameworks like SMART and OKR to align teams, deliver value, and …

Blog Blog
Read more about How to Set and Achieve Effective Sprint Goals
Product Development

Explains how to maintain clear, measurable quality standards with the Definition of Done, while avoiding confusion with acceptance criteria and …

Blog Blog
Read more about The Definition of Done: Ensuring Quality without Compromising Value
Product Development

Explains why Story Points are subjective and unsuitable for comparing teams, and highlights objective metrics like throughput and value for measuring …

Blog Blog
Read more about Deciphering the Enigma of Story Points Across Teams
Product Development

Explains how Scrum teams can balance Sprint work and Refinement, with strategies and visual tools to track, manage, and visualise both for better …

Blog Blog
Read more about Decoding Scrum Team Work: Balancing Sprint and Refinement Work
Organisational Agility

Explores why true organisational agility means building custom processes to respond quickly to market changes, not just adopting popular frameworks or …

Blog Blog
Read more about The Race for Market Responsiveness: A Fresh Perspective on Organisational Agility
Product Management

Explores why replacing "User Stories" with "Product Backlog Items" improves clarity, flexibility, and transparency in product backlog management and …

Blog Blog
Read more about Rethinking 'User Stories': A Call for Clarity in Product Backlog Management
Product Management

Explores how to maintain a lean, transparent product backlog that balances current needs with future readiness, enabling teams to adapt and maximise …

Blog Blog
Read more about Sculpting the Product Backlog: A Delicate Balance Between Lean Inventory and Future Readiness
Product Management

Explores how rigid hierarchies in product backlogs can hinder agility, advocating for flatter, value-focused approaches to manage complexity in …

Blog Blog
Read more about Rethinking Product Backlog: Navigating Through the Weeds of Complexity
Scrum

Explains how a well-ordered, refined Product Backlog guides Agile teams, supports goal alignment, and ensures value-driven product development through …

Blog Blog
Read more about Navigating the Future with a Fine-Tuned Product Backlog
Product Development

Explores how superficial adoption of agile in software development mirrors unused gym memberships, highlighting the need for genuine commitment and …

Blog Blog
Read more about From Unused Gym Memberships to Agile Implementation The Parallels of Misapplied Investments
Product Development

Failing to deliver a usable product each agile iteration leads to lost trust, technical debt, poor adaptability, misaligned expectations, low morale, …

Blog Blog
Read more about Storms of Neglect The Perils of Not Delivering Usable Products in Agile Iterations
Product Development

Delivering usable, working products frequently is key to reducing risk in Agile. Focus on feedback, automation, and lean practices over excessive …

Blog Blog
Read more about How Usable Working Products Are Your Ultimate Weapon Against Risks
Product Development

Compares Agile’s risk mitigation through incremental, usable products with traditional project management’s reliance on documentation, highlighting …

Blog Blog
Read more about Risk Mitigation: Agile Usable Products vs Documentation in Traditional Project Management
Beta Codex

Examines how rigid, hierarchical Alpha organisations struggle and waste resources in fast-paced red markets, highlighting the need for agile, …

Blog Blog
Read more about A Titanic Misfit: The Alpha Organization's Wasteful Endeavor in Red Markets
Leadership

Explores why traditional hierarchical organisations struggle in fast-changing markets and argues for agile, decentralised structures to boost …

Blog Blog
Read more about The Urgent Call for Agile Organisational Transformation
Organisational Agility

Explores why businesses should develop custom scaling practices tailored to their unique culture and needs, rather than adopting standard frameworks, …

Blog Blog
Read more about Embrace Uniqueness: Why Creating Your Own Scaling Practices Leads to Business Success
Leadership

Learn about Scrum.org’s new PAL-EBM training, which helps leaders use evidence-based management and custom metrics to align teams with organisational …

Blog Blog
Read more about Announcing Professional Agile Leadership with Evidence-Based Management Training (PAL-EBM) from Scrum.org
Product Development

Explains the key accountabilities, skills, and behaviours required for a Scrum Product Owner, including hiring trends, role requirements, and …

Blog Blog
Read more about Hiring a Professional Product Owner
Scrum

Highlights the importance of professionalism in agile teams, warning against excusing unprofessional behaviour as agility and stressing ethical, …

Blog Blog
Read more about Stop normalizing unprofessional behaviour in the name of agility
Scrum

Covers key responsibilities, skills, and requirements for hiring a Scrum Master, including leadership, coaching, facilitation, and fostering effective …

Blog Blog
Read more about Hiring a Professional Scrum Master
Leadership

Explains how Scrum teams rely on three key roles—Influencers, Entrepreneurs, and Makers—to balance leadership, value creation, and technical delivery.

Blog Blog
Read more about Scrum is made up of Influencers, Entrepreneurs, and Makers
Leadership

Explores the shift from traditional management to leadership focused on inspiration, effectiveness, and servant leadership, with insights for Scrum …

Blog Blog
Read more about Become the leader that you were meant to to be
Engineering Excellence

Technical debt increases risk to products and businesses, leading to hidden costs, reduced quality, and slower delivery. Ignoring it can harm …

Blog Blog
Read more about All technical debt is a risk to the product and to your business.
Kanban

Learn about becoming a Professional Kanban Trainer, the Applying Professional Kanban course, certification process, and key Kanban principles for …

Blog Blog
Read more about Professional Kanban Trainer for Applying Professional Kanban
Lean

Explores how Taylorism shaped modern management, leading to rigid hierarchies, bureaucracy, and dehumanising work practices that persist beyond …

Blog Blog
Read more about What is Taylorism, and why Waterfall is just the tip of the iceberg!
Product Management

Explains how the Sprint Goal serves as an immediate tactical objective in Scrum, guiding teams toward strategic Product Goals and maximising value …

Blog Blog
Read more about Sprint Goal is an Immediate Tactical Goal
Scrum

Explains why relying on story points and velocity signals team immaturity in Scrum, and highlights better ways to build confidence and predictability …

Blog Blog
Read more about Story Points & Velocity are a sign of an unsuccessful team
Product Management

Explains how to gather key metrics for evidence-based management in software organisations, focusing on value delivery, time to market, and ability to …

Blog Blog
Read more about Evidence-based Management: Gathering the metrics

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